eknath easwaran on light.....happy deepawali seekers..

Eknath Easwaran presents a deep reflection on light with a brilliant and ageless quote that stems the well of spirituality.

I have spoken at times of a light in the soul, a light that is uncreated and uncreatable to the extent that we can deny ourselves and turn away from created things, we shall find our unity and blessing in that little spark in the soul, which neither space nor time touches.

- -Meister Eckhart

First, there is a “light in the soul that is uncreated and uncreatable”: unconditioned- , universal, deathless; in religious language, a divine core of personality which cannot be separated from God.

Eckhartis precise: this isnot what the Englishlanguage calls the “soul,” but some essence in the soul thatlies at the very center of consciousness. As Saint Catherine of Genoa put it, “My me is God: nor do I know my selfhood except in God.” In Indian mysticism this divine core is called simplyatman,“the Self.”

Second, this divine essence can be realized. It is not an abstraction, and it need not – Eckhart would say must not – remain hidden under the covering of our everyday

personality. It can and should bediscovered, so that its presence becomes a reality in daily life.

Third, this discovery is life’s real and highest goal. Our supreme purpose in life is not to make a fortune, not to pursue pleasure, nor to write our name on history, but to discover this spark of the divine that is in our hearts.

Last, when we realize this goal, we discover simultaneously that the divinity

within ourselves is one and the same in all – all individuals, all creatures, all of life.